Thursday 24th September :- My
day dawned in Madrid and I was soon on the road to Santander where I
was meeting Ian, Dylan (of Planet Whale) and their group who had been
cetacean watching over the Bay of Biscay. Apparently the whales and
dolphins had been poor with a single Fin and a few Pilot Whales but the seabirds involved Great, Cory’s & Sooty Shearwaters, Great Skuas, Yellow Wagtail and a Robin on
the boat. We were hiring a second minibus for the 13 strong group
which (as usual) took some time but eventually we were heading out of
town towards Palencia. The journey through the eastern Cantabrian
Mountains was very scenic and produced a few Common Buzzards and a couple of Black Kites until we stopped just outside Reinosa for our picnic lunch. This was
an excellent place producing many raptors including a migrating Osprey, Short toed Eagle, Griffon Vultures, more Common Buzzards, Kestrel, Ravens, White Wagtails, Goldfinches and a Willow Warbler, plus Adonis Blue, Clouded Yellow & Small White butterflies. The excellent lunch, glorious sunshine and the classic
montane backdrop made for a great start to the land-based portion of the
holiday. We now had a long journey ahead to the Sierra de Culebra so
we set off and travelled through the miles and miles of cereal fields
seeing yet more Common Buzzards, Ravens, Carrion Crows, Jackdaws and Magpies. A ‘ringtail’ Montagu’s Harrier showed well to the people on the right side of the vans and Crested
Larks flew up from the roadside. Eventually we reached our
accommodation - the superb Centro de Turismo Rural (CTR)Veniata
in the village of San Pedro de Herrerias, where we were greeted by it’s
patron Antonio. Since it was now evening we decided to meet an hour
later for drinks before the evening meal but a few people managed a
stroll around the village prior to this. This produced a couple of 1st
winter Pied Flycatchers, Whinchats, male Black Redstart, Nuthatch, Great & Blue Tits. A Tawny Owl calling outside the hotel completed a very good first day indeed.

Friday 25th September :- It was
still dark as we congregated at the minibuses waiting to head off to
Pistas de Linares for our first chance of seeing an Iberian Wolf. The
light was just starting to filter through as we parked overlooking the
sierra and even through the early morning gloom we could see some low
lying mist!!!. The first hour as the sun rose above the hills was
fairly quiet apart from a few Dunnocks and a surprising Griffon Vulture, which alighted on some rocks in full view. Red Deer stags could be heard bellowing to one another and eventually a few
were found scattered over the viewing area. The light had improved
considerably over this wonderful terrain and we started to find our first Dartford Warblers, Carrion Crows and Ravens. I found a 1st winter Rufous tailed Rock Thrush, which was my first for this area and showed extremely well in the morning sun. A Great Spotted Woodpecker called and flew across the valley as did an Iberian Green Woodpecker, Jay, Woodpigeon, Chaffinch, Black Redstart - things were going well. Then an interesting movement made me go for my scope and there briefly was an Iberian Wolf – but it disappeared before anyone else saw it. I was devastated. We scanned to no avail but a pair of Black Vultures flew
over with it’s commoner cousin, the Griffon and landed out on the
sierra. Was there a kill?, were there wolves around as the vultures
were pensive?. We continued to watch until around 10am and then decided
to leave, as breakfast became a necessity. However with half the group
in the vans, Mike called “Wolf” and sure enough he had
hit the jackpot just down from where he was standing. The obvious panic
ensued with people exiting the minibuses like paratroopers from a
Hercules plane and tried to get on to the mammal. However it did the
decent thing and stayed in the same place long enough for us all to get
good scope views before it trotted off into the undergrowth. It was a
‘high 5’s’ moment, including our new Dutch friends who had been there
several days and seen nothing. We returned to Veniata full of smiles
and relief particularly for yours truly!. As it was now mid-morning
breakfast had turned into brunch but no one cared, we had achieved our
goal at the first time of asking. During breakfast Dylan explained the
rest of the day and how he and Ian were splitting the group and would
be going for a walk to try and find evidence of wolf. I was being
despatched to the west to check out a ‘Wolf Trap’ in the hills above
Lubian. So I spent the rest of the day visiting this site and seeing a
couple of Red Kites, Swallow, Cirl & Rock Bunting, plus Grayling, Clouded Yellow and Brimstone butterflies. Then higher on the tops above Lubian I found a Water Pipit, Northern Wheatears, Whinchat, Rock Bunting, Ravens and Common Buzzards.
The scenery was superb as the viewpoints looked down on the ‘Laguna de
Sanabria’, Spain’s largest glacial lake. I got back to San Pedro in
plenty of time to get ready for the evening watch, en-route having a Merlin fly in front of the vehicle. I met up with Dylan who told me of their
exploits finding lots of wolf evidence including tracks (a cast was
taken), scats and even fur!. So again in high spirits we convened at
the minibuses and drove the short journey to Linares, where we set up
for our evening vigil. Again many Red Deer, including some very impressive stags were on show, and Ian called a Hobby that flew-past showing really well. We all thought it was Christmas as Ian spotted an Iberian Wolf quite close on the sierra standing and out in the open. This was
simply brilliant and over the next hour until dusk we got good views of
this animal and probably a second. In fact towards the end of the
session we watched as it tugged at a carcass of what we presumed to be a
deer. It simply doesn’t get any better, we had been incredibly lucky
to get such good views. Eventually we returned to the CTR Veniata and
enjoyed another good Spanish meal at this wonderful location. That night
a Tawny Owl was seen sat on one of the nearby buildings before disappearing into the night.

Saturday 26th September :- Another fine day dawned over the watchpoint of Pistas de Linares and before breakfast we found the usual suspects of Red
& Roe Deer, Black & Griffon Vultures, Woodpigeons, Iberian
Green Woodpecker, Wren, Dunnocks, Chiffchaffs, Dartford Warbler, Jay,
Crossbills and Linnets. Back in the village of San Pedro we saw a Nuthatch, Black Redstarts and a Pied Flycatcher.
After breakfast we had decided to visit some of the local areas
looking for (particularly) reptiles & amphibians and had some
success as we found a cracking female Marbled Newt. Also here Cait saw a Bocage’s Wall Lizard and sadly Dylan pulled out a pristine Schreiber’s Green Lizard that had drowned in one of the water butts. After this we drove out
towards Sanabria and up towards the Laguna de Sanabria. We stopped at
the impressive visitor centre en-route and while everyone else looked
round the exhibits and displays I got the picnic lunch ready. It was
now another glorious day, so we enjoyed our rice salad, cheese, bread
& fruit in the shade of some Spanish Oaks. While we were there some
of us saw a Nuthatch, Great & Blue Tits, plus Gill was lucky to find a Short toed Treecreeper.
After lunch we drove slowly up to the mountain-top lake of Laguna de
los Peces where we took a slow walk around the edge of the water. We
enjoyed many new species in this area, which included Grey Heron, 2 Eurasian Teal, Mallard, Griffon Vultures, a Peregrine Falcon showed over a distant hillside, Meadow Pipits and a close Water Pipit, Dunnocks, Stonechats, Northern Wheatears. Amongst the bushes we found several Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, with several Iberian Rock Lizards along the dam wall. We returned to San Pedro with enough time for a
siesta or relax before the evening vigil, which was actually fairly
quiet seeing much the same things as the morning’s visit.

Sunday 27th September :- As we
were going to Villafafila and we were concerned about the heat on the
plains, we decided to forego the early start looking for wolf. Instead
we had an earlier breakfast and set off south east stopping en-route
for several Red Kites, Black Kite and a Southern Grey Shrike. However a
fleeting glimpse of a small raptor had Ian and I pulling into the side
of the road, knowing we had seen something potentially good. Then it
appeared again and confirmed our suspicions that we had found a Black
shouldered Kite. We watched it as it flew a short distance and alighted
on an electric cable, so we found a track and got nearer to where it
was. Here we spent quite some time watching this lovely and rare raptor
through the telescopes, then a second one appeared confirming there
was a pair in the area. Eventually we continued on to Villafafila and
immediately headed out to the tracks around the extensive agricultural
fields in this area. Our first stop was quite productive.